Cain Park

On Friday, we went to Cain Park to see Lyle Lovett. Lyle was great; his Large Band blew us away; Cain Park was awesome.

All I'll say about Lyle is that I've gotten sort of jaded about him in recent years, but seeing him live was so fun and engaging and just sort of brilliant. Also, he talked some about Austin, and between Lyle and watching Lance in the Tour this month, I've been pretty nostalgic for Austin. (And no, Austin is not like the rest of Texas. Not that the rest of Texas doesn't have a certain charm, but not the kind of charm I'd necessarily like to live in the midst of.) But this is suppose to be about Cain Park.

Cain Park is smack dab in Cleveland Heights, in a park. Well, it IS a park but then there's the part of the park where they have performances, and that's what I'm talking about. There's no parking lot; it's just woven into the fabric of the neighborhood. And they provide shuttles from a nearby shopping area. But we saw lots of people walking to the show.

The people working there were almost disconcertingly friendly. They have, you know, food and drink they sell so you can have a picnic on the lawn. It's cool. What else? The place just had a good feeling. I was really psyched to be there.

It had been wicked hot and humid, but it cooled off a little and didn't rain on us. Also, it seemed like just about every fifth female there was pregnant. What do you suppose that's about?

Anyway, there's ton of stuff going on there. Here's their calendar. And you can become a Friend of Cain Park for $35, and they save seats in the front 2 rows for Friends.

Cool breeze, finally

It's storming here. I'm sitting on the porch with the laptop. People are hurrying home from their evening walks, soaking wet. It's nice here. Have I mentioned that?

What to do?

Here's a good article about what to do in Cleveland during a visit.

Worthy of the spotlight

Cafe Tandoor

Dr. Jay and I went to Cafe Tandoor not long after we moved here, and, for some reason, I wasn't particularly impressed. But we went again last week, and I LOVED it! I can't eat the hot foods like I used to, and we got some nice things that weren't too spicy. I got an eggplant and tomato thing; Dr. Jay got...darn. Oh, wait the menu's online.

Navaratana Curry or Navaratana Tofu Curry · $9.95: Mixed fresh vegetables, paneer or tofu, & cashews in a tomato based curry
Baigan Bharta · $9.95: Tandoori roasted eggplant, mashed & mixed with tomatoes, onions & pea

One of our friends got something with cauliflower, which was also great, and another got this

Tandoori Mixed Grill · $18.95: A sampling of tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, a tandoori prawn, seekh kebab & boti kebab, served sizzling with onions & bell peppers

I only had a little bit of the mixed grill, but what I had was awesome.

You can't say we're not patriotic.

What could be more all-American than going to a baseball game on July 4? We took the RTA to Jacob's Field to see the Cleveland Indians play the Detroit Tigers.

Our real motivation for going was that a friend in NYC told me it was going to be "Dollar Dog Day", and since we didn't have any cookouts to go to today, we went to the game. I managed to actually pay attention and watch for almost 2 innings. It was hot and sunny. The dogs, I'm afraid, weren't great, but the Indians did win, so that was very nice for all the people there at the game, who seemed to actually care about that.

Shaker Square

So, Shaker Square! It's cool. In addition to being the site of a great farmers' market on Saturdays, there are lots of restaurants, shops, and a movie theater. If I moved to Cleveland as a single person not looking to buy a house, I'd move into one of the cool, old, and attractive apartment buildings within walking distance of Shaker Square and the RTA station that's there. A Dave's Supermarket is going to move in there, so I guess you could live down there and not ever have to use your car!

Sushi on the Square

A while ago, it seemed like summer then, but I guess it was spring? We tried a new sushi place in Shaker Square (have we talked about Shaker Square? I'll post about it.) It's called Sushi on the Square.

The sushi was good, as I recall, but what's really stuck with me is the seaweed salad we had, which was crunchy and sesame-y and so good! Sorry I don't remember more!

The weather

The weather this weekend so far has been awesome! Warm and sunny in the day, but not so warm that the house becomes an oven (we close the windows and shades on the sunny sides of the house). Then at night we open up the windows and there has been a delicious cool breeze blowing through where you just need a little cover to snuggle in.

God, I love it here.

The Original Pancake House

Ok. So I just found out this is a chain. But I had never heard of it, and was still under the impression that it was one of a kind when we went yesterday. And it was really good.

It's called The Original Pancake House, and it's in a strip mall down on Chagrin east of 271. (The Cleveland area has really changed my view of strip malls. I've learned that just because something is in a strip mall, it doesn't mean that it's bad or cheesey. There are some really great restaurants around here in strip malls.) It's conveniently across the street from Trader Joe's and down the street from Wild Oats, so you can use it as a reward for doing your grocery shopping.

It's really nice inside. Sort of fresh and colorful and soothing at the same time. And they are serious about pancakes there. I mean. There are like 18 flavors of pancakes on the menu, and then all the egg dishes come with a side of pancakes. Which altered our ordering strategy (normally: one savory and one sweet and we share) somewhat. We ended up getting eggs benedict with smoked salmon (YUM!!!) with a side of buttermilk pancakes and then a feta, sun-dried tomato, and spinach omelette with a side of buckwheat pancakes. The omelette was really good, and huge. Dr. Jay LOVED the buckwheat pancakes and kept claiming that they tasted almost chocolatey. (I didn't taste any chocolateness. I think this says more about how often Dr. Jay eats chocolate than it does about the pancakes...)

On the way out, we saw some beautiful, I guess it was orange, juice. It was so brilliantly orange, I guess it must have been fresh squeezed. We'll have to look into that next time.

Johnny Mango

Last night we wanted to try something new, so I got out my list of places I want to try, and Dr. Jay chose Johnny Mango's. So we went to the one in Willoughby (pronounced willuhbee? I thought it would be willowbee, but was laughed at by my husband).

Johnny Mango's is in a little downtown that had some artsy shops and a number of restaurants. Who knew that was there?

Anyway, JM's is a pretty cool little place, decorated in kind of a "the Islands" way. They have a bean, a veggie, and a grain each day. I don't know how often it rotates. Dr. Jay ordered the Bangkok BBQ Chicken (with white meat; they said that cost extra, but that the leg and thigh would take 30 minutes to cook and we were starving, since it was almost 9 pm). It was sort of sweet and teriaki-y and maybe slightly fruity. He also go the veggie of the day, which was chard (which I love) in a sweet and sesame-e sauce. The grain of the day appeared to be white rice, and the chicken, greens, and rice together were like candy. There were also some borracho-type beans that were a little bland, but easily ignored for the other stuff.

I got a special for the day, fish tacos with mahi. They were good, and had a little kick to them, and lots of cilantro. (And crispy taco shells, which, when was the last time I had a crispy taco?) I, too, had the boring borracho beans, but, again, I ignored them an concentrated on eating the tacos and all the stuff that fell out of the tacos with the white rice. Then there was some kind of non-creamy and totally delicious slaw. I'm afraid that's all I can say, other than I kept seeing some kind of gourd seed in it and it was tangy. Mine also came with a grilled banana with lime. I accidentally tried to put the lime on my tacos instead of on the banana. The banana was good, but mostly a novelty, and not quite the same as a plantain.

Next time, we want to try the bread and slather of the day. When we were there, the bread was "backpacker" and the slather was like orange-mango-ginger or something. What would that be like? Backpacker? I'm game.